While I miss the podiums, I do like the new format. I found that I paid closer attention to the writing because I wasn't skimming ahead to see the next podium. One suggestion would be to put in a picture of each card or at least the rules text. Otherwise people not already familiar with the new cards are forced to jump between the article and 20+ new tabs containing images of the cards.
I think I also read the article more closely because I too realized I don't really play standard. Yeah, why would I read Standard-centric reviews? That was good insight for a Pauper, Commander, 100 Card Singleton, random Casual, and Legacy-at-the-drop-of-4x-Force-Of-Will-into-my-account player. :)
"Standard has Thrun but that's the only playable one (Competitive playability-wise)."
Gladecover Scout? Turn 1 drop, bound to become a 3/3 multi-evasive or 5/5 flyer first striker? Imagining a fast GW aggro here. Then, why not Dungrove Elder? You don't need him to be a 10/10. 2/2 or 3/3 can be just fine, if your endgame is for him to be the carrier of swords and Angelic Destiny. And surely, you'll have ways to fetch both forests and plains if needed. The thing is, a big flyer with hexproof where the only way out seems to be Revoke Existence IMO isn't to be dismissed as a finisher.
The best way of fixing the norton problem is to not use defective programs like norton in the first place. There are many FREE antivirus programs that perform substantially better than norton.
Angelic Destiny is indeed great with Hexproof creatures but the question is this: In which format?
Standard has Thrun but that's the only playable one (Competitive playability-wise). Dungrove Elder needs Forests, so I wouldn't play Angelic Destiny in the same deck with Dungrove Elder.
In Extended there aren't many targets for it as well. Thrun is still the only playable one. In Modern you have Troll Ascetic as well as Temple Garden as a dual land (so that you can play Dungrove Elder too), but why bother playing Angelic Destiny when you can cheat swords into play with Stoneforge Mystic?
And no, it won't see any play in Legacy. If I'm paying 2WW for a card, I would rather play Elspeth, Knight-Errant.
But maybe there's a Stoneforge Mystic for enchantments in Innistrad, who knows? If so, then surely it will get a lot of attention. But currently Angelic Destiny is only a very nice Uril, the Miststalker Commander toy.
Regarding Druidic Satchel being in Top-20: Well what can I say, some other cards made their reservation for Top-20 earlier, so it had to stay in this part of the list :).
Nope... it's his trigger. I just said "Incinerate?" and he couldn't get that Negate out of his hand fast enough. Then I asked about the trigger and he said, "You got me". I understand that you have some responsibility, but this is paper, not MTGO where you get all sorts of assistance. I love MTGO, but sometimes paper gives you some edge, even if it's just in things you SHOULD learn. I know I'm MUCH better due to MTGO (I never missed a may and noticed multiple misses by opponents and so forth) when I was really bad before this. now I'm just bad.
Cool report. M12 looks ultra aggressive, and your deck plays along with that theme.
FWIW, when you target one of the Illusions with a spell or ability, you should announce that the sacrifice trigger is going on the stack above the spell. "Baiting" a counter seems like it could reflect a misapprehension of the stack at the time he cast the spell.
Like this format, it's more dynamic and fun to read.
I agree about Stonehorn Dignitary, it will be stupidly good with Venser, the Orim's Chant for his Isochron Scepter (kinda).
I disagree about Primordial Hydra. While I do concur about those "Indy Swordsman-like" big, flashy fellas who just wait for your spot removals, I think that's not the case here. Otherwise we can object about everything being like that, except shroud/hexproof/indestructible creatures. After all, you play your big titan trying to scary me? Doom Blade for you, sir (well, Go for the Throat for the grave variety). That would mean the titans aren't worth playing? The point here is just that: what's so scary that you HAVE to have that Doom Blade in hand in, say, 3 turns, or you're probably done? My answer is: big tactical advantage creatures (titans are among those, but also Avenger of Zendikar or Consecrated Sphinx, for instance), and deadly evasive hitters. And a big trampler is among the latter of course. We'll see if the hydra will actually see play, but it's a good threat, and versatile enough. I will never play it with 10 counters btw. It could even be worth try it for 1 counter in turn 2, but I'll probably play it with 5 (less if opponent is mainly WU, one more if I've reasons to think Dismember is there), and let you deal with its clock.
The very "Indy Swordsman" creatures are the ones who, if you look closely, aren't a real clock. Green has plenty of those, unfortunately. The Prince of Dorks to me has always been Krosan Cloudscraper. You can block him with anything, for God's sake!
On unrelated news, isn't Angelic Destiny terrific on Thrun or any other Hexproof dude? I know I'll never try to put it elsewhere. Nice alternative to swords.
Arachnus Spinner: the jury is still out on it, but it DOES stop a titan (or, you know, Emrakul, even in his 1st turn) forever. You only need an untapped spider on opponent's upkeep. Any spider, not necessarily himself. There's the cute one that destroys flyers, for instance. Besides, a 5/7 reacher for 6 isn't bad, he can hit and defend more than decently.
Also, Druidic Satchel belongs in the Top 20 to me.
ok the norton thing...ive done this.1) open norton, go to setting, then firewall, program rules, go to kicker c:\program files (86)\ wizards of the coast etc. and hit "allow" in the button on the right. then do the same thin with magic online. now open by run as admin and hit repair. now go to the website of mtgo. downlaod the client. then launch from the client emblem. it will ask u to overwrite or repair. hit repair. after this run mtgo as admin. then repair again. restart ur pc and cross ur fingers. i had that prob on all 3 of my pcs and this fixed them all. 2)play more mtgo.
No idea how to fix norton except to delete it and use other (better) AV programs, but you should be able to protect your lists by saving them outside of the wotc folder system. (I tend to save off of the desktop so /user/desktop/mtgodecksfolder/etc
I think the main reason I haven't gotten excited by Overextended vs Modern is that the Fetch Lands (in Odyssey etc) feel like the main difference. Both formats are viable casually. I think there might even be room for both if extended is taken out of the picture entirely.
has wizards fixed the norton bug yet or is it that norton is bugged? a couple of weeks ago i tried logging on to mtgo and norton deleted my mtgo program. after reinstalling i lost all my decks but the net deck file. i've been online since v1 so i lost ALOT of decks. very frustrating. i called wizards by phone and was informed of this issue by support. they said you have to turn norton off while logging on than back on after logging off of mtgo. any info on this issue would be appreciated.
I especially noticed in R2G1 -- you shouldn't be afraid to play gush without Fastbond out. You should have played it there to keep making your land drops, and you definitely should have played it before Brainstorming -- you probably could have won the game the turn you drew that brainstorm (I think I probably would have tutored for a Force with the D-Tutor, as the Fastbond was definitely not needed to win that game).
You got a little pigeonholed on resolving Vault + Key, but Gush into Brainstorm would have drawn you 5 extra cards, which goes a long way to winning the game.
Anyway -- cool videos, though. I think gush definitely has potential to be abused more in classic, especially with unrestricted brainstorm.
Last thing. The reason there are 3 acidic slims is because ETB effects are king, but also you want to actually draw this guy instead of just pod for him. Going with 2 and a red praetor actually works fairly well for tempo game too. Build to suit!
First off thanks to Jake for adapting this brew and running with it! You've pumped out more videos than me, also thanks for the link! Still getting hits :-)
I completely understand why people don't "get" the deck. About a third of people who just look at the list tend to think it's "clunky," and has "no direction" etc etc. Let me explain that the deck initially was a UG tempo/aggro deck similar to a deck I used to play that cheated out Vengevines early. It quickly became apparent that I could be doing a similar thing with an auto-win condition in the deck. Since then the deck has been grinding hundreds of matches and every card is extremely carefully picked.
Now for some specifics.
Nest Invader was chosen over Fauna and/or Emmissary intentionally for a few reasons. Red is at an all time high for usage especially since Jace and Stoneforge were banned. And although Emissary doesn't care so much about being Pyroclasm'ed, Fauna Shaman does. Both Emissary and Nest Invader end up with card advantage when killed however. The plus on Nest INvader is he's guaranteed to give you that mana on the following turn, where-as with Emissary your opponent chooses. Generally speaking that's not good enough. Don't give your opponents options. The biggest reason Nest Invader was chosen however is that it's exactly what you want vs Vampires and RDW, the latter of which is extremely popular at the moment. Why do you want Nest more than emissary? Well for starters emissary dies and leaves no blockers behind and you end up taking damage. With Nest INvader your opponent bolts your Nest Invader and you block their Goblin Guide with a 0/1. You also just took 0 damage and ate a card out of their hand. At this point it's your game to lose, trust me!
Fauna Shaman is just too slow and even if you grab some of your creatures with her you still have to hardcast them, which is less than ideal. Pod is SOOO much better than Fauna Shaman in this standard meta-game. (sorry fauna I love you!)
The deck actually has 3 plans that all coincide with each other. Therefore you are not doing 3 different clunky things at once. Let me explain:
Plan A: Splinter Twin a Deceiver Exarch. Pretty simple, however the coinciding part of this deck is that you can drop a Masticore, Vengevine, Frost Titan etc (whatever angle your meta calls for, because the decks 4 drop slot is easily moved around)and put pressure forcing your opponent to tap out or play defensively. Which you then untap and say GG with Splinter Twin. Additionally, Splinter Twin has MUCH more value than the UR version of the deck. I've won games with Twin on Nest Invader against Vampires, Baloth vs RDW, Frost Titan vs everything, and Slime which is one of my favorites. Almost every creature except the mana dorks are perfectly legitimate slim targets (except Vengevine).
Plan B: Land destruction. It may be hidden to some who haven't played the list but Deceiver Exarch is a fantastic... no INCREDIBLE card on it's own. It does EVERYTHING. And Land disruption is one of those jobs. Particularly against Valakut when you keep them off 2 mana or 6 mana. Followed by an Acidic Slime and/or Frost Titan against most decks you can really gimp your opponent while you find creatures to attack with or find your combo win. And that's where the coinciding plans overlap here as well. If you destroy even 1 land and they have to tap out to save themselves a chance to come back, you just are free to pod/twin etc on your turn.
Plan C: Beat down. This plan is best vs Control decks which is why I've included more Vengevines in my personal list. vengevine also sacs well to pod. If you put your opponent on the defensive sometimes you'll just win by either plan A or B. The idea is you're doing all these things simultaneously, which gives your oppening hands a much better chance to keep. If you are without mana dorks vs a slower deck but you have the combo in your hand it's probably a keep.
And then you have Birthing Pod which ties all these plans together for 1 seemless deck.
Another thing people overlook is that this deck has the Mike Flores philosophy of including all the best cards you can jam into 1 deck. You have preordain, exarch, cobra, twin, pod (in my top 10 at least), Frost Titan (imo one of top 10 because of the bannings since Vala is back). That's arguably 6/10 top ten cards. The decks consistency and lack of any truly "bad" matchup is what lets it succeed. It's also well rounded and hard to stop with any 1 card. (spellskite and torpor orb are toughest)
My recommendation is to play the deck. It's putting up clear WINNING results. It's been in countless dailies at 4-0 and 3-1 by not only me and Jake but by a multitude of others. Even been written on by Mike Flores on Dailymtg.com.
The deck is real, and m12 gives this just as many updates as other decks are receiving.
Not only will you win, you will have a ton of fun doing it! Trust me just once :-) Thanks again Jake!
I was sorely disappointed when I first got into MTGO and built Pebbles to discover how much clicking was needed and what a pain in the arse it was to combo off. It's one of my all time favourite decks, but playing it online is so horrible after having played it in paper.
I really love this article from old school decks cause at the top of my game when i had lots of free time to play magic and invest freely of my money into cards and decks my fav Enduring Renewal deck was with Ashnod's Altar and making a 20 point fireball on turn 3. Another awesome combo deck around the same time was the humility deck which i hated to play against.
Personally, I find these fascinating. I played a lot in the very early days (Unlimited) and had stopped playing after Alliances. I finally got back into it after Lorwyn/Alara standard, but obviously there is a huge chunk of the game I know virtually nothing about that isn't part of today's legacy/vintage metagame.
Getting to watch these is like getting to draft old sets. It is a lot of fun to get to play with/see decks that abuse spells, combos, fast mana and crappy creatures compared to now, which has overpowered creatures (which are themselves spells) and underpowered spells and mana producers.
I agree that Pure has improved quite a bit in content. Particularly lately. I think there is room for Spiky McSpikersons and Timmy Powergamers and Vorthos the Art Critics and any number of other weird demographics. While not a huge fan of video content I agree the video articles have improved a lot. (Whiffy Im looking at you.)
I think State of the Program holds good information for all types of players as card values fluctuate a lot and this is important info for anyone with any kind of collection at all.
It seems upsetting that people can't find common ground sometimes because there certain is plenty to find. Hey Walker post some articles :D Haven't seen any from you in ages.
Hi there, firstly congratulations. Tough call on the URZAs draft. I love that format, brings back fond memories.
Secondly, thanks for the effort you take to make the videos. Shame about the sound. The content is good watching.
Finally, if you don't mind, some friendly advice on the NPH draft, take it or leave as you see fit:
- I believe Oma is right, the bonehoard was the right pick. I know your deck was pretty good with two bombs (or at least almost near bomb - Golem Artizan) but think what may have been the case with the bonehoard on all your flyers!!
- I'm afraid I disagree with the geyser over the priests, but it's just a personal choice. I personally prefer the wall to the limited bounce in most cases. Especially if I'd picked the bonehoard. But I appreciate that your mileage may vary.
- You picked trinket mage over a counterspell late in pack 3. At that point you still hadn't got any trinkets (I know you did eventually get 1). It was quite late. The trinket mage had a good chance of being just a ogre in your deck. The counterspell while it might not make your deck would have given you options had you faced anything scarier than you did in those three rounds. I'm not sure you thought much about your sideboard options when faced with late picks.
- The above wasn't the first nor the last time in this draft that you effectively gave up your pick late-ish in a pack while there were still reasonable side-board material or cards that could be difficult for you in the deck of another. I have seen rotted hystrix and toxic nim smash people. Neither should be left in the pack if you haven't got anything else to pick. There is no excuse for picking land over these unless your LSV! You're only causing yourself potential trouble later.
- The mouse movement and zooming was very distracting at times. I think I agree with Thisismich and would have preferred less.
- Playing UW with critters with flash and reactive spells you still tended to tap your pristine talisman in your own turn. There was even a point where you had 5 mana with the talisman but tapped it early thereby telegraphing that you didn't have the drake with flash in your hand. I appreciate it's just a small thing but when the going gets tough, small things matter.
Anyway, again cheers for the efforts in doing these articles. I really do appreciate them.
The reason this deck doesn't fall over like other Pod lists is because there is only a very small toolbox. The deck doesn't turn into and awful Rock deck without Birthing Pod.
While I miss the podiums, I do like the new format. I found that I paid closer attention to the writing because I wasn't skimming ahead to see the next podium. One suggestion would be to put in a picture of each card or at least the rules text. Otherwise people not already familiar with the new cards are forced to jump between the article and 20+ new tabs containing images of the cards.
I think I also read the article more closely because I too realized I don't really play standard. Yeah, why would I read Standard-centric reviews? That was good insight for a Pauper, Commander, 100 Card Singleton, random Casual, and Legacy-at-the-drop-of-4x-Force-Of-Will-into-my-account player. :)
"Standard has Thrun but that's the only playable one (Competitive playability-wise)."
Gladecover Scout? Turn 1 drop, bound to become a 3/3 multi-evasive or 5/5 flyer first striker? Imagining a fast GW aggro here. Then, why not Dungrove Elder? You don't need him to be a 10/10. 2/2 or 3/3 can be just fine, if your endgame is for him to be the carrier of swords and Angelic Destiny. And surely, you'll have ways to fetch both forests and plains if needed. The thing is, a big flyer with hexproof where the only way out seems to be Revoke Existence IMO isn't to be dismissed as a finisher.
I dont mind the new formating but I hope you will do one podium at the end. i.e. where you show of the best art and best flavor etc...
2of1
The best way of fixing the norton problem is to not use defective programs like norton in the first place. There are many FREE antivirus programs that perform substantially better than norton.
Angelic Destiny is indeed great with Hexproof creatures but the question is this: In which format?
Standard has Thrun but that's the only playable one (Competitive playability-wise). Dungrove Elder needs Forests, so I wouldn't play Angelic Destiny in the same deck with Dungrove Elder.
In Extended there aren't many targets for it as well. Thrun is still the only playable one. In Modern you have Troll Ascetic as well as Temple Garden as a dual land (so that you can play Dungrove Elder too), but why bother playing Angelic Destiny when you can cheat swords into play with Stoneforge Mystic?
And no, it won't see any play in Legacy. If I'm paying 2WW for a card, I would rather play Elspeth, Knight-Errant.
But maybe there's a Stoneforge Mystic for enchantments in Innistrad, who knows? If so, then surely it will get a lot of attention. But currently Angelic Destiny is only a very nice Uril, the Miststalker Commander toy.
Regarding Druidic Satchel being in Top-20: Well what can I say, some other cards made their reservation for Top-20 earlier, so it had to stay in this part of the list :).
I'm glad you liked the formatting of the article.
LE
Nope... it's his trigger. I just said "Incinerate?" and he couldn't get that Negate out of his hand fast enough. Then I asked about the trigger and he said, "You got me". I understand that you have some responsibility, but this is paper, not MTGO where you get all sorts of assistance. I love MTGO, but sometimes paper gives you some edge, even if it's just in things you SHOULD learn. I know I'm MUCH better due to MTGO (I never missed a may and noticed multiple misses by opponents and so forth) when I was really bad before this. now I'm just bad.
Cool report. M12 looks ultra aggressive, and your deck plays along with that theme.
FWIW, when you target one of the Illusions with a spell or ability, you should announce that the sacrifice trigger is going on the stack above the spell. "Baiting" a counter seems like it could reflect a misapprehension of the stack at the time he cast the spell.
Like this format, it's more dynamic and fun to read.
I agree about Stonehorn Dignitary, it will be stupidly good with Venser, the Orim's Chant for his Isochron Scepter (kinda).
I disagree about Primordial Hydra. While I do concur about those "Indy Swordsman-like" big, flashy fellas who just wait for your spot removals, I think that's not the case here. Otherwise we can object about everything being like that, except shroud/hexproof/indestructible creatures. After all, you play your big titan trying to scary me? Doom Blade for you, sir (well, Go for the Throat for the grave variety). That would mean the titans aren't worth playing? The point here is just that: what's so scary that you HAVE to have that Doom Blade in hand in, say, 3 turns, or you're probably done? My answer is: big tactical advantage creatures (titans are among those, but also Avenger of Zendikar or Consecrated Sphinx, for instance), and deadly evasive hitters. And a big trampler is among the latter of course. We'll see if the hydra will actually see play, but it's a good threat, and versatile enough. I will never play it with 10 counters btw. It could even be worth try it for 1 counter in turn 2, but I'll probably play it with 5 (less if opponent is mainly WU, one more if I've reasons to think Dismember is there), and let you deal with its clock.
The very "Indy Swordsman" creatures are the ones who, if you look closely, aren't a real clock. Green has plenty of those, unfortunately. The Prince of Dorks to me has always been Krosan Cloudscraper. You can block him with anything, for God's sake!
On unrelated news, isn't Angelic Destiny terrific on Thrun or any other Hexproof dude? I know I'll never try to put it elsewhere. Nice alternative to swords.
Arachnus Spinner: the jury is still out on it, but it DOES stop a titan (or, you know, Emrakul, even in his 1st turn) forever. You only need an untapped spider on opponent's upkeep. Any spider, not necessarily himself. There's the cute one that destroys flyers, for instance. Besides, a 5/7 reacher for 6 isn't bad, he can hit and defend more than decently.
Also, Druidic Satchel belongs in the Top 20 to me.
ok the norton thing...ive done this.1) open norton, go to setting, then firewall, program rules, go to kicker c:\program files (86)\ wizards of the coast etc. and hit "allow" in the button on the right. then do the same thin with magic online. now open by run as admin and hit repair. now go to the website of mtgo. downlaod the client. then launch from the client emblem. it will ask u to overwrite or repair. hit repair. after this run mtgo as admin. then repair again. restart ur pc and cross ur fingers. i had that prob on all 3 of my pcs and this fixed them all. 2)play more mtgo.
I definately want to do a PTSD on Pandeburst, but that will have to wait until Nemesis appears online.
No idea how to fix norton except to delete it and use other (better) AV programs, but you should be able to protect your lists by saving them outside of the wotc folder system. (I tend to save off of the desktop so /user/desktop/mtgodecksfolder/etc
Good luck with that.
I think the main reason I haven't gotten excited by Overextended vs Modern is that the Fetch Lands (in Odyssey etc) feel like the main difference. Both formats are viable casually. I think there might even be room for both if extended is taken out of the picture entirely.
has wizards fixed the norton bug yet or is it that norton is bugged? a couple of weeks ago i tried logging on to mtgo and norton deleted my mtgo program. after reinstalling i lost all my decks but the net deck file. i've been online since v1 so i lost ALOT of decks. very frustrating. i called wizards by phone and was informed of this issue by support. they said you have to turn norton off while logging on than back on after logging off of mtgo. any info on this issue would be appreciated.
playing pebbles variants...not as much as Pandeburst..but was still super fun.
I especially noticed in R2G1 -- you shouldn't be afraid to play gush without Fastbond out. You should have played it there to keep making your land drops, and you definitely should have played it before Brainstorming -- you probably could have won the game the turn you drew that brainstorm (I think I probably would have tutored for a Force with the D-Tutor, as the Fastbond was definitely not needed to win that game).
You got a little pigeonholed on resolving Vault + Key, but Gush into Brainstorm would have drawn you 5 extra cards, which goes a long way to winning the game.
Anyway -- cool videos, though. I think gush definitely has potential to be abused more in classic, especially with unrestricted brainstorm.
Last thing. The reason there are 3 acidic slims is because ETB effects are king, but also you want to actually draw this guy instead of just pod for him. Going with 2 and a red praetor actually works fairly well for tempo game too. Build to suit!
First off thanks to Jake for adapting this brew and running with it! You've pumped out more videos than me, also thanks for the link! Still getting hits :-)
I completely understand why people don't "get" the deck. About a third of people who just look at the list tend to think it's "clunky," and has "no direction" etc etc. Let me explain that the deck initially was a UG tempo/aggro deck similar to a deck I used to play that cheated out Vengevines early. It quickly became apparent that I could be doing a similar thing with an auto-win condition in the deck. Since then the deck has been grinding hundreds of matches and every card is extremely carefully picked.
Now for some specifics.
Nest Invader was chosen over Fauna and/or Emmissary intentionally for a few reasons. Red is at an all time high for usage especially since Jace and Stoneforge were banned. And although Emissary doesn't care so much about being Pyroclasm'ed, Fauna Shaman does. Both Emissary and Nest Invader end up with card advantage when killed however. The plus on Nest INvader is he's guaranteed to give you that mana on the following turn, where-as with Emissary your opponent chooses. Generally speaking that's not good enough. Don't give your opponents options. The biggest reason Nest Invader was chosen however is that it's exactly what you want vs Vampires and RDW, the latter of which is extremely popular at the moment. Why do you want Nest more than emissary? Well for starters emissary dies and leaves no blockers behind and you end up taking damage. With Nest INvader your opponent bolts your Nest Invader and you block their Goblin Guide with a 0/1. You also just took 0 damage and ate a card out of their hand. At this point it's your game to lose, trust me!
Fauna Shaman is just too slow and even if you grab some of your creatures with her you still have to hardcast them, which is less than ideal. Pod is SOOO much better than Fauna Shaman in this standard meta-game. (sorry fauna I love you!)
The deck actually has 3 plans that all coincide with each other. Therefore you are not doing 3 different clunky things at once. Let me explain:
Plan A: Splinter Twin a Deceiver Exarch. Pretty simple, however the coinciding part of this deck is that you can drop a Masticore, Vengevine, Frost Titan etc (whatever angle your meta calls for, because the decks 4 drop slot is easily moved around)and put pressure forcing your opponent to tap out or play defensively. Which you then untap and say GG with Splinter Twin. Additionally, Splinter Twin has MUCH more value than the UR version of the deck. I've won games with Twin on Nest Invader against Vampires, Baloth vs RDW, Frost Titan vs everything, and Slime which is one of my favorites. Almost every creature except the mana dorks are perfectly legitimate slim targets (except Vengevine).
Plan B: Land destruction. It may be hidden to some who haven't played the list but Deceiver Exarch is a fantastic... no INCREDIBLE card on it's own. It does EVERYTHING. And Land disruption is one of those jobs. Particularly against Valakut when you keep them off 2 mana or 6 mana. Followed by an Acidic Slime and/or Frost Titan against most decks you can really gimp your opponent while you find creatures to attack with or find your combo win. And that's where the coinciding plans overlap here as well. If you destroy even 1 land and they have to tap out to save themselves a chance to come back, you just are free to pod/twin etc on your turn.
Plan C: Beat down. This plan is best vs Control decks which is why I've included more Vengevines in my personal list. vengevine also sacs well to pod. If you put your opponent on the defensive sometimes you'll just win by either plan A or B. The idea is you're doing all these things simultaneously, which gives your oppening hands a much better chance to keep. If you are without mana dorks vs a slower deck but you have the combo in your hand it's probably a keep.
And then you have Birthing Pod which ties all these plans together for 1 seemless deck.
Another thing people overlook is that this deck has the Mike Flores philosophy of including all the best cards you can jam into 1 deck. You have preordain, exarch, cobra, twin, pod (in my top 10 at least), Frost Titan (imo one of top 10 because of the bannings since Vala is back). That's arguably 6/10 top ten cards. The decks consistency and lack of any truly "bad" matchup is what lets it succeed. It's also well rounded and hard to stop with any 1 card. (spellskite and torpor orb are toughest)
My recommendation is to play the deck. It's putting up clear WINNING results. It's been in countless dailies at 4-0 and 3-1 by not only me and Jake but by a multitude of others. Even been written on by Mike Flores on Dailymtg.com.
The deck is real, and m12 gives this just as many updates as other decks are receiving.
Not only will you win, you will have a ton of fun doing it! Trust me just once :-) Thanks again Jake!
I was sorely disappointed when I first got into MTGO and built Pebbles to discover how much clicking was needed and what a pain in the arse it was to combo off. It's one of my all time favourite decks, but playing it online is so horrible after having played it in paper.
I really love this article from old school decks cause at the top of my game when i had lots of free time to play magic and invest freely of my money into cards and decks my fav Enduring Renewal deck was with Ashnod's Altar and making a 20 point fireball on turn 3. Another awesome combo deck around the same time was the humility deck which i hated to play against.
Personally, I find these fascinating. I played a lot in the very early days (Unlimited) and had stopped playing after Alliances. I finally got back into it after Lorwyn/Alara standard, but obviously there is a huge chunk of the game I know virtually nothing about that isn't part of today's legacy/vintage metagame.
Getting to watch these is like getting to draft old sets. It is a lot of fun to get to play with/see decks that abuse spells, combos, fast mana and crappy creatures compared to now, which has overpowered creatures (which are themselves spells) and underpowered spells and mana producers.
I love podding into snake. Seems an optimal play no matter the response.
I agree that Pure has improved quite a bit in content. Particularly lately. I think there is room for Spiky McSpikersons and Timmy Powergamers and Vorthos the Art Critics and any number of other weird demographics. While not a huge fan of video content I agree the video articles have improved a lot. (Whiffy Im looking at you.)
I think State of the Program holds good information for all types of players as card values fluctuate a lot and this is important info for anyone with any kind of collection at all.
It seems upsetting that people can't find common ground sometimes because there certain is plenty to find. Hey Walker post some articles :D Haven't seen any from you in ages.
Hi there, firstly congratulations. Tough call on the URZAs draft. I love that format, brings back fond memories.
Secondly, thanks for the effort you take to make the videos. Shame about the sound. The content is good watching.
Finally, if you don't mind, some friendly advice on the NPH draft, take it or leave as you see fit:
- I believe Oma is right, the bonehoard was the right pick. I know your deck was pretty good with two bombs (or at least almost near bomb - Golem Artizan) but think what may have been the case with the bonehoard on all your flyers!!
- I'm afraid I disagree with the geyser over the priests, but it's just a personal choice. I personally prefer the wall to the limited bounce in most cases. Especially if I'd picked the bonehoard. But I appreciate that your mileage may vary.
- You picked trinket mage over a counterspell late in pack 3. At that point you still hadn't got any trinkets (I know you did eventually get 1). It was quite late. The trinket mage had a good chance of being just a ogre in your deck. The counterspell while it might not make your deck would have given you options had you faced anything scarier than you did in those three rounds. I'm not sure you thought much about your sideboard options when faced with late picks.
- The above wasn't the first nor the last time in this draft that you effectively gave up your pick late-ish in a pack while there were still reasonable side-board material or cards that could be difficult for you in the deck of another. I have seen rotted hystrix and toxic nim smash people. Neither should be left in the pack if you haven't got anything else to pick. There is no excuse for picking land over these unless your LSV! You're only causing yourself potential trouble later.
- The mouse movement and zooming was very distracting at times. I think I agree with Thisismich and would have preferred less.
- Playing UW with critters with flash and reactive spells you still tended to tap your pristine talisman in your own turn. There was even a point where you had 5 mana with the talisman but tapped it early thereby telegraphing that you didn't have the drake with flash in your hand. I appreciate it's just a small thing but when the going gets tough, small things matter.
Anyway, again cheers for the efforts in doing these articles. I really do appreciate them.
Exactly!
The reason this deck doesn't fall over like other Pod lists is because there is only a very small toolbox. The deck doesn't turn into and awful Rock deck without Birthing Pod.